The Original Version
by MewWinx96
Summary: The original versions of chapters of Hi no Nami. No lemon, but definitely not for kids.
1. This is

**Okay, so with Hi no Nami I always start ideas before deciding they're stupid and scrapping them. This is what remains from that process. **

* * *

"It's with you!" An old, dried-up hag shouted on the television. I was hanging out with Sarah, Akiko, Kimura, Akiko's boyfriend Suzuki Hideyoshi, Oshiro Shizuka, and Minami Daisuke. We were eating breakfast for dinner from some restaurant down the street and watching some talk show about fortunetelling or something. I didn't know what was going on because up until she screamed that as loud as she possibly could, I wasn't paying attention.

"I guess a genius would have a Genius Guardian Spirit with them!" She said.

_Guardian Spirit?_ I thought. _What the hell is she talking about? Ah, forget it. It's just some crazy old loon who got a television show on Sakura TV. That's easier to do than selling your soul to Easte- I mean, Satan._

"Genius?" Her guest said. "I'm nothing like that."

"You definitely have a Genius Guardian Spirit with you." She insisted. "Geniuses are born with the ability to be geniuses! And compared to him… All of you are just ordinary. And though I hate to say it, your Guardian Spirits are just ordinary."

_Yup, this bitch is definitely off her rocker. I mean, what person tells someone that they're just ordinary? Humans like to be told their special and that the world just wouldn't be the same without them. …I like this bitch. _

"No matter how much a normal person might try, they'll never be a genius." She said bluntly.

"Come now, that's not…" The guest had started saying when Shizuka flipped the channel.

"Why are we watching this?" She asked as she flipped the channel to MTV. "It's crap."

"Oh, and a television show about attention whores from New Jersey is better?" I asked sarcastically.

"At least we're not watching some bitch talk down to people on national TV." Shizuka said as she crossed her arms over black dress with green straps and the two necklaces she wore. One of the necklaces had a diamond charm, the other had a puzzle piece. I also remember that she was wearing black bangles, and for some reason was wearing both a hairclip and a hairband in her blonde hair streaked with black and pink. "How did she even get a TV show?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well, it is Sakura TV." Sarah pointed out. Sarah was wearing her normal school uniform and her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail. "They're willing to put anything on just for ratings. Remember when they put on six hours of a chimp trying to resuscitate its dead mother?"

"Oh yeah, that was just terrible." Suzuki agreed. He had brown hair and green eyes and was wearing a green shirt and jeans and was in a relaxed position while multi-tasking with running his fingers through Akiko's multi-colored hair and eating some of his omelet. "I remember they came under a lot of fire for that."

"That's because it was so heartbreaking!" Akiko said as she put her Styrofoam box of pancakes down on the coffee table and pressed her hands up to her heart. "The poor baby!"

"Although, I guess that bitch did have a point." Sarah said as she swallowed the last bit of her French toast. "Not everyone can be a genius. It takes a lot of hard work and stuff to get your IQ up that high. Not everyone is willing to put in that kind of effort."

"Says the girl who's paying someone who has had basically no formal education do her homework for her." I pointed out.

"Well, that's different." She said.

"How?" I demanded.

"I'm rich and pretty." She simply stated. "I don't need to be smart." She then put her Styrofoam box down next to mine on the coffee table and wiped her mouth off with a napkin. "I'm gonna wash this sticky shit off me in the bathroom." She said as she stood up.

Once she was in the bathroom, I noticed that Sarah had left her water unattended, right next to the salt shaker Suzuki brought out to salt up his eggs.

"What are you doing?" Shizuka asked when she noticed me unscrewing the top from the salt shaker. I let my actions be my response as I dumped the entire thing of salt into Sarah's water and used her straw to try to dilute it in. Once I heard footsteps approaching, I stopped what I was doing. Sarah sat back down on the couch. She didn't touch her water. Everyone stared at her waiting for her to do so.

"Why are you all staring at me?" Sarah asked after a few seconds.

"How's your water?" I asked.

"My water?" She asked in confusion. "I haven't had it yet. Why, what did you do to it?"

"Nothing." I lied. "I was just trying to make conversation…"

"Then why is it all cloudy?" Sarah asked as she picked up the glass and showed it to me.

"I don't know." I said. "Maybe the government's putting E. Coli in it again."

"What did you do to it?" Sarah asked again. "I may not be a genius like you, but even I'm not retarded enough to drink cloudy water. What is it?"

"Salt." I finally admitted. "And I'm not a genius. I just have an Eidetic Memory."

"Yeah, yeah." Sarah said as she put the glass down.

"Well?" I said.

"Well, what?" Sarah asked.

"Aren't you gonna drink the water?" I asked.

"No way!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Why not?" I asked. "It's salt, it's not gonna hurt you."

"Because I don't wanna drink salt water." Sarah explained.

"Fine then." I said. "I **dare** you!"

"What?"

"You heard me, I **dare** you!" I exclaimed.

"Fine." Sarah said and then took the glass back and drank the water.

"How does it taste?" I asked.

"Like the ocean." Sarah responded.

"Oh, you know what," Akiko, who had been laughing her ass off with the others while this was going on, started saying. "why don't we play truth or dare?"

"Truth or dare?" Minami asked.

"Yeah, but not just any old game of truth or dare, Shady's version." Akiko insisted.

"Shady made up her own version of truth or dare?" Minami asked.

"Yep." I said. "Did it once when I was bored shopping with my mom and brother at Target."

"Well, how do you play?" Minami asked.

"Well," I started. "first, you have to sit in a circle. Then you have to ask the person to the left of you a truth. If they refuse to answer, don't answer in thirty-nine seconds, or you suspect that they're lying; they have to do a dare. The dares can't be wimpy dares, like 'Oh, you have to kiss so and so.', they have to be real, hardcore dares. If the dare cannot be completed, the person has to do the usual."

"What's 'the usual'?" Shizuka asked.

"You stick the garden hose outside down your pants and make it look like you peed yourself." I explained.

"Gross!" Shizuka exclaimed.

"Well then, you better be able to complete your dares." I said. "The game only ends if someone gets arrested, or the 'nice'" (evil) "manager 'politely asks us to leave'" (throws our sorry asses out of) "Target. Oh, and I'm only saying this once: No most certainly does mean no if the dares are of a sexual nature, **Kimura**."

"Why did you single me out?"

"Because it's just like you to do that you jackass!"

"Okay," Sarah said, getting in between us. "Save it for the game you two."

"Fine." I said, dropping it.

_I'm gonna make sure I sit next to that little bitch and __**make him SUFFER!**_

After we had finished eating and had pretty much cleared everything off the coffee table except our own drinks. I sat on the left side of the coffee table (Well, left from the direction I was facing.) with Kimura on my left, Akiko on his left, Suzuki on her left, Minami on his left, Shizuka on his left, Sarah on her left, and me on her left.

_Yes!_ I thought to myself. _Now I can make that little bitch pay for being such an asshole!_

"Okay, who wants to start?" Sarah asked.

"Ooo! Me! Me! Me!" I said as if I was a six-year-old who really wanted the first-grade teacher's attention.

"Alright, I guess Shady can start." Sarah said.

_Yes! Yes! Yes!_ I chanted in my head while the little chibi me that lived inside bounced around and celebrated and the real me tried to figure out what embarrassing question to ask him first.

"Shady, what is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?" Sarah asked.

"Wait, what?" I was confused.

"Thirty-five seconds." I guess Shizuka was keeping track of the time on her phone.

"Answer, the question, come on!" Sarah said.

"Oh, wait, I thought I was volunteering to ask a question first." I explained.

"What?" Sarah said. I must have said that too fast for her to hear. I do that sometimes.

"Thirty seconds."

"I thought I was volunteering to ask a question first." I explained again.

"Oh." Sarah said. "Well, too bad. You're answering a question."

"But that isn't what I volunteered for!"

"Too bad, so sad."

"Twenty-five seconds."

"Ugh, this is so unfair!"

"Just answer the question, Shady." Akiko said. "It's better than having to do something that Sarah comes up with."

"She won't do anything to terrible." I pointed out.

"Maybe…" I couldn't tell if Sarah was kidding or serious.

"Twenty seconds."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Maybe I'll keep the dare tame… Or maybe I'll make you do something so humiliating you'll kill yourself from the embarrassment and attempt to kill yourself again once you're in heaven because everyone there will be bullying you."

"Fifteen seconds."

"Alright, first off, I'm not Mormon; I'm going to hell." I pointed out. "Second off, if I'm going to kill myself, it's not gonna be over a stupid dare."

_It's gonna be over the guilt and shame I am bound to hold for the rest of my life for killing so many people. _

"And finally, I was volunteering to **ask** a question. I shouldn't have to answer one."

"Ten seconds."

"There are no take backs, you know that." Sarah said. "Now answer the question."

"Alright, fine." I said and began thinking about my answer.

"Five seconds."

"The most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me… That would have to be…"

"TIME'S UP!" Shizuka shouted.

"Wait, what?" I said.

"Times up, you have to do a dare!" Sarah shouted as everyone else cheered.

"That's not fair!" I exclaimed. "I didn't even get a chance to answer! I was talking to Sarah!"

"Too bad." Sarah said. "Rules are rules. Now you have to do what I say."

"Kuso." I said under my breath. "Alright what is it you want me to do?"

"Well…"

"This is fucking stupid!" I said as I walked up the street while carrying a boom box by the handle.

"Well then, you should have answered the question." Sarah said.

"Hey, anyone think it's weird that we still have boom boxes in twenty-thirty eight when we have iTunes and shit and at this point technology should be advanced enough to where we have nano-chips in our brains that broadcast waves to other nano-chips when we want other people to hear a song we want them to hear?" Wow. Akiko just asked a very smart question. That must be a first!

"Oh, shut up you fucking wench!" And Kimura had to ruin it.

"Ayo, if you don't leave my girlfriend alone, I'll beat you're fucking sorry ass back to before boom boxes were invented, Kimura!" Just so you know, Suzuki isn't an easy guy to piss off. However, Kimura's presence in a room alone can drive anyone over the edge, he is that much of an ass.

"Oh, what, you want to start something, Suzuki?" Kimura challenged.

"Guys, please don't fight!" Akiko cried. Sarah immediately ran over and grabbed Akiko's hand, pulling her away from the scene.

"Come on," Sarah said. "just let them duke it out. I'm sure after a few punches, Kimura will back off like the little pussy bitch that he is."

"Tell me again why we hang out with Kimura." I said to Sarah quietly so an already upset Akiko wouldn't hear.

"Probably our punishment for being delinquents." Sarah said bluntly.

"Oh! This is the house!" Shizuka shouted ahead of us.

"You sure?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah." Shizuka said as we approached. "The license plate matches. This is where that bitch who took my parking space at Seiyu lives."

"Wait, you're making me do this to someone just because they took your parking space?"

_That seems a little petty._

"The bitch saw me going towards it, she saw me waiting for the other guy to pull out and she just pulled in like it would be the fucking end of the world if she didn't get that parking space."

"Yeah, but to write down their license plate number and find where they live…"

"Why don't we just get this over with?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, it's freezing out here." Akiko said rubbing her arms.

_Well, you should have worn more than a little skimpy dress. Maybe a jacket?_

"Fine." I said.

I turned the boom box on and pressed play and immediately heard the song "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel play. I had to resist the urge to burst out laughing as I held the boom box over my head. Sarah, Akiko, Shizuka, and Minami didn't hold back, though. They laughed so hard they fell backwards onto the wet pavement. They thought it was just so god damn funny…

…Until the bitch came out of her house and shined a really fucking bright LED flashlight in our faces.

"Who's out there?" The bitch shouted.

"Oh shit!" I said as I threw the boom box on the ground.

"Run!" Sarah shouted as she got up off the ground.

* * *

**Yeah... This is as far as I got with the original version of chapter five of Hi no Nami. I'm not sure if I can say what the original title is, just know it's gross. **


	2. The Idol, Hoshina Utau

**Chapter Nineteeen of the Game of Life.**

* * *

"Drop those titties on the floor

Drop those titties on the floor

Drop those titties on the floor

On the floor

On the floor"

Christ, who's calling me at eleven in the morning? I thought as I pried my eyes open. I looked at my phone. Caller ID said it was Sarah, but I was unsure if it was actually her. Logan's been buying a large number of cellphones lately and programing them so that way they show up as people who are in my contacts. How he's been doing this, I don't know, but I'm willing to bet that he's been using some of his connections up at the NSA.

"Who the fuck is this?" I answered the phone aggressively.

"Woah, man." Sarah said. "Chill out."

"Sarah?" I questioned.

"Duh." Sarah responded. "Don't you have caller ID? Who the fuck else do you know whose named Sarah."

"Sorry." I said. "I thought it was my stalker."

"You mean that guy who follows us around whenever we go out anywhere?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, shit, dude." Sarah said. "If it's that bad why don't you beat his ass into the ground?"

"Because he has a personal order of protection out against me." Yeah, you heard me right. Logan has a restraining order out against me. While technically I did do something in order for Logan to convince a judge that a personal order of protection was necessary, it's mostly just used by Logan as a way to say "Hey, if you harm me in any way, I'll send you to jail for the night".

"Wow." Sarah said. "That sucks, man."

"Ah, well." I said. "What can you do?"

"Anyways," Sarah said. "I called because I wanted to know if you wanted to go to the mall with me."

"No way, dude." I said. "The Toride Mall sucks. More than half the stores are closed and the only people you see hanging around there are meth addicts and old people."

"Nah, I don't mean the Toride Mall." Sarah said. "I mean the Plaza Mall in Shiroi, near Asa Mokuzai."

"Isn't that place really high-end?" I asked.

"It's not that high-end." Sarah said.

"It has a Lord and Taylors and a Chipotle." I said. "Do not tell me that that's not high-end."

"You think Chipotle is high-end?" Sarah asked.

"Isn't it?" I asked in response.

"Well," Sarah said. "given that no one can eat that crap without shitting out their entire digestive system, I'd say no."

"Oh." I said. "Well, still, it has a Lord and Taylors and a few other high-end places. You know I can't afford that stuff! Why do you want to go there?"

"Because that's where the body paint place is." Sarah said.

"Body paint?" I questioned. "Why the hell do you need body paint?"

"I-it doesn't matter." Sarah said, avoiding the question. "But, if you come with me I'll take you to Johnny Rockets."

"Johnny Rockets?" Oh, if you ever want me to do anything, promise free food in return. I'll definitely do it then. "Okay, I'm in."

* * *

Asa Mokuzai is in Kaishiwa. It's just two towns south and a bit east from Toride. It's not really that far from the Shimofusa Air Base. Because of that, you can often hear planes taking off and landing. Most think that would detour the rich and powerful elite from having their kids attend school there, but actually, for them it was kind of a convenience. If something seriously wrong happened at school (I mean school shooting seriously wrong or your kid bashed another kid's head in seriously wrong.) then they would be able use their military connections to fly in and get to the school quickly.

As I walked through the iron wrought gates of Asa Mokuzai, I heard one of those military planes was coming in for a landing. It seemed pretty loud to me (Loud enough for me to feel it necessary to cover my ears and scream "Shit!".) but everyone around me seemed pretty unfazed by it. I guess they've gotten so used to it they don't even notice it now.

I walked in to the building Sarah's dorm was located in and knocked on her door. Some tall, blonde, shirtless man who looked a bit like Sarah answered. I couldn't hear what he said because the bells that were ringing in my ears. I assume it was something along the lines of "Hello, who are you?".

"WHAT?" I shouted.

He said something again, probably repeating himself.

"WHAT?" I shouted again. "I CAN'T HEAR! THE PLANE!"

He seemed to say "Oh" and then disappeared into the room. He then reappeared with a notebook and pen. He had written Who are you? What do you want? on the page.

"I'M LOOKING FOR SARAH!" I unknowingly shouted. "WHERE IS SHE?"

He then scribbled something else down on the page.

She's in the auditorium. Just follow the path you just walked down to get here all the way to the end.

"THANK YOU!" I shouted again before following his directions to the auditorium.


	3. The Third Heir (OV)

**Every time I read this, I feel a few of my brain cells die. Now you can, too!**

* * *

It was late at night when the family was awoken and told to dress. They were told it was no longer safe to be where they were staying and that they would be escorted to safer quarters. They had been spending months living like this; moving from safe house to safe house, but the family understood that they had to, otherwise they would be killed by the White Army.

The soldiers from the Red Army had told them all to wait in the cellar while the truck that was to escort them to safety pulled up to the house. The father, Nicholas, asked if some chairs could be brought in for his wife, his son, and himself to sit on. Once they were brought in, everyone just patiently waited for the soldiers to return and tell them when it was safe to go.

A few minutes later, though, Yakov Yurovsky and members of the Secret Police came downstairs.

"Nikolai Alexandrovich," Yurovky started. "in view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you…"

Nicholas was shocked. He turned from his family to face the soldiers.

"What? What?" He said. This could not be happening.

"In view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia," Yurovky repeated. "the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you…"

This time, Nicholas had no time to react before the soldiers raised their weapons and opened fire. Amid the shooting, his wife, Alexandra and daughter, Olga had tried to cross themselves but failed. Nicholas fell dead instantly from the bullet wounds he sustained.

The next to die was Alexi, the son of the Tsar who was shot by Yurovky personally. Alexandra had died amist the rounds fired by the soldiers. Olga sustained a gunshot wound to the head and died. Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were the last to die. Tatiana was shot in the back of the head by Yurovky. Maria and Anastasia had crouched up against a wall and covered their heads in sheer terror until they were shot down.

The Russian Royal Family was dead.

* * *

Anastasia and her sisters survived the shootings longer than they should have. This was thanks to the large amounts of jewels and jewelry they had on their persons at the time. One piece of jewelry-a necklace worn by Anastasia to be specific-was so resilient that it sustained no damage from the bullets it was hit with. That necklace is known as the Eternal Star Locket. The Locket was a gift given by an international dignitary to Nicholas who in turn gave it to his daughter. So, if Anastasia has anything to thank for the few extra moments of life she was granted, it's the Locket.

After Anastasia died, though, the Locket disappeared. For years, no one knew what happened to it. Some assumed that the family's bodies were plundered after death and that the Locket was long gone and sold off to the highest bidder on the black market. Personally, I don't think that theory is too far from the truth…

* * *

I honestly don't know how the Locket got into my Great Grandmother's possession. All I know is that it was a beautiful, late summer afternoon in two-thousand one when she asked my mother to visit her in her room at one of the Hoshina family's mansions. The room was small with lemon yellow walls that looked all the softer with the delicate sunlight streaming through the windows. My Great Grandmother, Ingrid, watched the dust particles dance in the streams of light from her white-sheeted bed. She was bed-ridden. Doctors didn't even give her to the end of the month. She was fine with that. She was quite old. She had lived a nice, long life. She was happy leaving things as they were. All she wanted to do before she died, though, was talk to her granddaughter one last time.

My mother was quite the adorable five-year-old, I must admit. She had long blonde hair that she kept tied up in pigtails, much like Utau, and her purple eyes were constantly observing the area around her. Though, they never focused on one thing. They moved around the room, leading one to believe that she was constantly distracted. I think she was diagnosed with ADHD or something once because of this. In reality, though, she was focused and paying attention to what you were saying. She just had a problem staying still.

On the day that Ingrid asked to see her, my mother was wearing a white sundress and her favorite orange cardigan along with a pair of brown sandals and assortment of multi-colored bead necklaces that came in her Disney Princess "Real" Jewelry Kit. She walked into the room, swinging loosely by her left hand, which clutched the door knob. The fingers of her right hand were placed in her mouth. This was a habit she had. She refused to remove them, even when she talked to the frustration of many adults.

"'Unie aid at oo aned oo ee e." My mother said.

"Yes, Liebling, come here." Ingrid said in a thick German accent that I doubt I could recreate, gesturing for my mother to sit on the bed with her. "And take your fingers out of your mouth. You look like a verdammt fool."

My mother obliged to sitting on the bed, but still refused to take her fingers out of her mouth, leaving Ingrid to muster up what little strength she had to pull them out herself.

"Liebling, you better be thankful the lord made you pretty." Ingrid muttered to herself. My mother heard her, but she was five and didn't get what it meant so she just took it as a compliment. "Listen, Liebling, look here." Ingrid said, cupping my mother's face in her hands so she would hopefully maintain eye contact. "Oma is old."

"Well, duh." My mother said. Ha, I love five-year-olds. They're such wise asses and they can get away with it 'cause they're so young. I wish I could get away with saying shit like that.

Ingrid ignored my mother's remark and continued on with what she was saying.

"Yes… And she is also very sick." She took a brief pause. "Oma is going to die soon, Liebling." Although she had quite a long time to get used to the idea, the finality in the statement that had just come out of Ingrid's mouth shocked her. Mortality is frightening to everyone, even those whose ends are imminent. She had to fight back tears as she looked her granddaughter in the eyes. …Or, well attempted to. Like I said, as a child my mother was very fidgety. "And because… And because Oma is going to die soon, she's not going to be able to do certain things anymore. So, I need you to promise to do some things for me. Can you do them?"

"Okay, Oma." My mother said with a bright smile. "I'll do whatever you tell me."

"Alright." Ingrid said. "But first, you must promise me that no matter what, you will accomplish whatever it is I tell you, no matter how impossible it may seem. Can you promise me that?"

"Yes, Oma." My mother said. "I promise."

"Do you swear on your life?"

"I swear on my life."

"Good." Ingrid took a deep breath. "The first thing I want you to do is that no matter what, you will be an obedient girl who listens to her parents. Defiance is not a good trait for a lady to have. Always listen to your father as he knows what's best for you, and once your father is gone and you have been married off to a man of his choosing, you will obey you husband as you did your father. Understand?"

"Yes, Oma." My mother said. "I promise to be obedient and listen to daddy."

"Alright." Ingrid said. "The second thing I want you to promise is that you will never lose your faith in God. He knows what's best for you and as long as you pray to him and believe in him, he will take care of you. When you have children, you will teach them to pray and believe in him as well."

"Okay, I promise." My mother said.

Ingrid then used all of her remaining strength to force herself to sit up and grab a black leather box off the nightstand. With shaky hands, she offered the box to my mother. My mother quickly snatched the box out of her hands and opened it. Inside, there was a shiny, gold, stars-shaped necklace.

"Wow…" My mother said as she delicately ran her fingers over the gold surface. "It's pretty…"

"This necklace is a prized possession of mine." Ingrid said. "I've had it as long as I can remember and now, I want to pass it on to you, Liebling. Now, this is real jewelry. Not any of that fake plastic stuff that Mama lets you play with. You have to promise to take very good care of it."

"Oh, yes, Oma!" My mother said with elation filling her voice. "I promise that I'll take extra, extra special good care of it!"

"Good." Ingrid said with a slight smile crossing her old, wrinkled face. "Now, that's supposed to be a locket or something, but I could never get it open. That's probably due to its odd shape." My mother wasn't paying attention to her. She was too busy observing her reflection in the surface of the gold locket. It was then that Ingrid's strength gave out on her and she fell back on to the mattress again. "Liebling…" She said, catching my mother's attention once again.

"What is it, Oma?" She asked innocently.

"There is one more thing I want you to promise me." Ingrid said.

"Sure." My mother said. "What is it?"

"Well…" Ingrid said. "In the Nineteen-sixties, Oma and Opa visited a place known as New York City. Ah, what a magical place it was. The bright lights, the Broadway Shows, the high-class restaurants, and all the people… Anyways, Oma and Opa went there and had the most amazing time. I don't think I had ever had that much fun in my life. There was one thing I wanted to do when I was there, though, that I had never had gotten to do. At the time, these two very, very large buildings were being constructed. It was said that they were going to be the largest in all of New York. I could just imagine the view from that height. Being able to see every movement of every person and vehicle… It'd be just breath taking… I made Opa promise me that the next time we came to New York, we'd go and climb to the top of that tower. But, we never returned. And since Oma is going to die, she probably can never do it herself. So, Liebling, I want you to promise me that at some point in your life you will fulfill this dream for me. Promise me you will climb to the top of the World Trade Center and see the sights I never got to see."

Ingrid's passionate speech had brought tears to my mother's eyes. Although she was only five, she understood the weight and importance of what Ingrid wanted her to do.

"O-okay, O-Oma." She said, slightly sobbing. "I-I pr-rom-ise t-to d-do tha-tha-at."

"Very good, Liebling." And with that, Ingrid shut her eyes and silently passed.

* * *

So I think you can tell right off the bat that my mother wasn't able to keep one of her promises to my Great Grandmother. I mean, Nine-eleven happened literally the next day. So unless someone finally figures out how to achieve backwards time travel (Which is unlikely, because, in the words of one Stephen Hawking: "If time travel is possible, then where are all the tourists?") she's pretty much already failed her. She also kind of failed to keep her promise again by disobeying her father and marrying mine. But, I kind of really can't get mad at her for that because if she hadn't, I wouldn't be here. Then again, is that a bad thing? 'Cause I think the world would probably be better off without me.

I also guess you could say she partially failed in her second promise, too. Don't get me wrong, although she doesn't go to church, my mother believes in God and prays and all that stuff, It's just… I'm not sure about Ikuto and Utau's religious beliefs, but personally, I'm Agnostic. I don't have anything against religion or anything, I'm just cool with whatever waits for me when I leave this world. Hopefully it's an afterlife in a pit full of lava, blood, and pain. So, yeah, technically she failed there.

So, in the end, the only promise my mother was able to keep was taking care of the Locket. She did a pretty good job of it, too. She kept it in its case, locked in the top draw of her dresser throughout her childhood and teen years. When she and my father went off to explore the world, she made sure it was locked in a safe in the deepest recesses of her parents' rarely-used summer home in Okinawa where no thief would ever think to look. Even when she and my father moved into my childhood home she kept it very well hidden. I have to say, it took me quite a while to find it…

* * *

It was a cold, gloomy Thursday in February. I think it was the last full week of February to be exact. The weather lately had been acting kind of funky. First, we had a tropical storm, then a sudden cold snap, then a fucking blizzard, then three days with nothing but rain only to be followed by another cold snap and now the sky was doing a weird thing where it was half snowing and half raining. I know what you're thinking, "That's sleet you idiot!" but this was weirder than sleet. Half-frozen balls of slush were literally falling from the sky. It didn't hurt to get hit with one, but there was no way you'd be able to walk outside without getting completely soaked. I've never seen anything like it before or since. I don't even think there was a scientific explanation for it. It just happened and it freaked everyone out. Even the meteorologists on the news were at a loss for an explanation as to how this could occur. Nature, man... It's fucking freaky.

Needless to say, Ikuto's attendance at school had increased during this time because who the hell wants to hang around outside and catch their death? Seriously, he has no other place to go during the day. Although I let him get away with it from time to time, usually if Ikuto skips school, I make him leave the house. My mother gets why I can't be in school, but if she caught Ikuto skipping, she'd throw the bitch fit to end all bitch fits. To her, the most important thing in life that one can receive is a proper education. If she knew that Ikuto was wasting an opportunity to learn and increase his knowledge of the world that many kids in third-world countries would kill for, she'd kill him. Okay, she wouldn't kill him. But she would be crying non-stop for the next six months and completely lose the ability to look him in the eyes. At least, that's what happened when I got thrown out of school. Also, I feel I should mention that high school is optional in Japan. You don't have to go if you don't want to. The only reason why Ikuto was enrolled in school was because it was either go to school or work for Easter full time. Honestly, if I were in his position, I would have chosen to do the same thing.

As he looked around the dimmed lights of his classroom, all Ikuto could see were kids around him texting, playing games on their phones and taking selfies. Now, normally this wouldn't perturb him in the least, considering that nearly everyone in his generation had instant gratification disorder in some way shape or form, but they were currently watching a documentary… …About World War II… …More specifically, the Holocaust.

Yeah, you heard me right, the Holocaust. Currently playing on the projector screen was a documentary about one of the worst events in human history that resulted in the deaths of over six million people and these kids were so self-absorbed that they couldn't put down their damn phone for forty-five freaking minutes and show some god damn respect. What the fuck? Who the hell raised these kids? Hitler himself? I mean, seriously! Six million people died just simply because one asshole thought they were the scum of the Earth! Are you that god damn insensitive that you can't take your head out of your ass and just sit there and quietly watch the god damn film? Jesus Chirst, people like this fucking piss me off. The ones who think the world revolves around them and everyone has to bow at their feet. They're just such fucking assholes! Oh, and you wanna know what really pisses me off. There was a grown-ass fucking teacher in the room and all she did was sit there and fucking enable them. Hell, she did worse than enable them, she fucking encouraged them! She just sat there, reading a paperback copy of A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks. Shit, what are you? A fucking retard? Jesus Christ…

Okay… I'm done… Not gonna rant about that… …Just… Ugh… …So… …So disrespectful…

Anyways, Ikuto was pretty much the only one showing the proper amount of respect for the film and not doing any of the shit his asshole classmates were doing and actually paying attention. Some of the film was hard to look at, seeing as it had actual footage taken by the Soviets when they liberated the death camps, but he could handle it. Yoru apparently couldn't, though, because he hurriedly said something about being too bored and finding something else to do. Heh, wimp.

Ikuto's attention was only taken away from the film when the girl behind him-a blonde whose name he had long forgotten-tapped him on the shoulder.

"Ne, Tsukiyomi." The blonde said while chewing on some gum. "Someone wanted me to pass this to you." She then held out a very sloppily folded piece of notebook paper.

"Who's it from?" He asked as he took it from her.

"How the fuck should I know?" She said as she turned back to her phone.

Bitch.

Ikuto inspected the note before unfolding it. It was folded half in a triangle and half in a square shape and had his name written on it in some sort of chicken scratch he could barely understand. He unfolded it and read the contents of the message inside.

Dude, I just got this awesome movie. You've gotta check it out. Talk to you after class.

-Yamoto

Yamoto referred to Kawaguchi Yamoto. He had been an acquaintance of Ikuto's since… I think I'd say roughly third or fourth grade. Maybe fifth? They weren't close friends. I think he'd only been to the house once or twice and the only reason why I think he even came over was to borrow something or work on a project for school.

Ikuto was kind of surprised by this and a little intrigued. He decided to hang back after class and see what the hell kind of movie Yamoto would want to show him.

* * *

After class, Ikuto hung around in the hallways, waiting for Yamoto. Yamoto often flirted with most of the girls in the class after school, so he knew it'd take a while. Eventually, the young man known as Yamoto who had messy black hair and dark brown eyes came strutting out of the classroom, followed by two giggling girls.

"We'll have to do that again sometime, ladies." Yamoto said to the girls with a flirtatious smile. "In the meantime, I hope I appear in your dreams tonight."

"Oh, Kawaguchi-san, you are so sweet!" One of the girls gushed.

"See you tomorrow, Yamoto-kun!" The other girl said with a little wave as she and her friend turned and began to make their way to their homes. They could be heard squealing and giggling as they made their way down the hall. Yamoto was about to walk off in the opposite direction of the hallway when he saw Ikuto standing there.

"Oh, hey Ikuto." Yamoto said.

"Mind telling me what this is about?" Ikuto said, holding up the note that had been passed to him by that blonde bitch in class.

"Oh, dude, you gotta check this out." Yamoto said as he began digging through his grey messenger bag. After a minute of searching, he pulled out a white VHS case with the words ThanksKilling (2009) written on it in black Sharpie. Yamoto handed it to Ikuto, who stared at it for a moment.

"What the hell is this?" Ikuto asked as he and Yamoto began to walk down the hall.

"It's a VHS copy of a movie." Well, duh.

"That's not what I meant." Ikuto said with annoyance in his voice.

"Oh." Yamoto said. "Well, it's this movie about a turkey that kills people."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And is there anything else in the movie that would make it worth the time I wasted waiting for you to stop fooling around with those girls." I think they were doing more than fooling around, Ikuto.

"Oh, trust me, there is." Yamoto said with an assuring smile.

"Okay, what?"

"It's a spoiler." Yamoto said. "I'm not gonna ruin it for you. Trust me, if you watch the movie, you'll like it."

"Yeah, I doubt that." Ikuto said.

"Why?" Yamoto asked.

"Well, look at it." Ikuto said. "It's on a VHS when the cover says it was made in two-thousand nine and the title is Thankskilling. If that doesn't scream 'snuff film' I don't know what does."

"It's not a snuff film." Yamoto said. "I checked all the actors are still alive. Mostly…"

"Oh, well that's reassuring." Ikuto said.

"Look, just give the movie a chance." Yamoto said. "I'm sure you'll find that it's not as bad as you think it'll be."

"Fine." Ikuto said. "I'll watch five minutes of it. If it ends up sucking, I'm holding you accountable."

"Trust me, five minutes is all you need."

* * *

The walk home from school for Ikuto was quite long. Not like he minded. The more time he spent out of the house, the better. But, by the time he had arrived home that day, the streetlights had been on for nearly an hour and he was completely soaked by the weird slushy precipitation.

The first thing he did when he arrived home was change his clothes. After he did that, he came downstairs from his room to get something to eat from the kitchen. When he did that, though, he noticed something that he didn't when he came home. The living room was in a state of complete disarray. The cushions were pulled off the couches and thrown across the room; several of the books on the bookcases were missing along with some CDs from the CD case/tower thing by the stereo, one of the old, broken computers was missing…

Ikuto slowly descended the stairs and looked around.

"Marceline?" He called out.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Where are you?"

"In the den."

Ikuto walked over to the den, which wasn't in a better state than the living room. I was lying on my side on the floor, trying to reach for a coin or something that was stuck under the couch.

"What is it?" I asked, not looking up.

"Did we get robbed again?" Ikuto asked.

"Psh," I said, trying not to laugh. "you really think that anyone in this neighborhood would be stupid enough to try and steal from us again?" Just to clarify, what happened last time was that some punk kid broke into the house and I scared him off by firing a couple of rounds at the ceiling. I told Ikuto they were blanks. They weren't blanks.

"Then why does the living room look like the Tasmanian Devil was chasing Bugs Bunny through it?" Ikuto asked.

"Oh, I'm just doing some spring cleaning." I said.

"Spring cleaning?" He repeated in disbelief.

"Yeah." I said.

"It's February." He pointed out.

"It's gonna be March in a few days." I pointed out.

"And you're not cleaning anything; you're just making a huge mess." That was a better argument. He should've started with that.

"Okay." I said as I got up off the floor and turned to face him. "You wanna know the truth? We're broke."

"What?" Ikuto said in shock.

"Yup." I said. "We're broke; completely out of money."

"How is that possible?" He asked. "We just counted the money last night. We had enough to pay the bills and buy groceries for another week. What happened?"

"Do you really have to guess?" I asked.

"Mom found the stash?" He asked seeking confirmation.

"Yeah." I said. "Gonna have to find a new place to hide it." I sighed. "Pain in the ass. I'm starting to run out of places to hide it."

"So, what are we gonna do about the bills?" Ikuto asked.

"I don't know…" I admitted. "I'm trying to find stuff to sell right now, that's why the place is such a mess. Worse comes to worst and I can't find anything valuable, I'll skip paying the cable this month or in the extreme case, both the cable and the gas… Aw, Jesus Christ, why the hell did she have to do this? Doesn't she realize we have to eat? I just… Ugh, fucking hate it."

"Where is Mom?" Ikuto asked. "Is she okay?"

"She's in her room." I said. "I checked on her twenty minutes ago. Unfortunately, she hasn't died as a result of choking on her own tongue yet. She's in her room, sleeping like a baby."

"You know, while I get where you're coming from, I don't think you should be talking about your own mother like that." Ikuto said.

"Pft, whatever." I said as I began to walk towards the door. "I'm gonna be going through the books in the office. Tell me if you find anything in your room that you want to sell."

"Those books aren't yours to go through." Ikuto pointed out.

"Oh please." I said. "If Kazuomi really cared about the safety of those books, he wouldn't keep them here." And with that I disappeared behind the stairs, walking in the direction of the office.

Ikuto sighed with exasperation. He was a little put off by my behavior, but I don't blame him for that. I'm kind of a bitch. It takes a lot to deal with me. Unlike me and Utau (Though she won't admit it aloud.), Ikuto actually cares about our mother. I don't know why. She's a drug addict and even before our father left us, she was a terrible parent. I remember when I was really little, our father wouldn't let our mother take us out to public places by herself because every time she did she'd either forget to bring us home or she'd bring home the wrong kids and I'm not exaggerating when I say every time. I am serious. Every single time she took us out somewhere without my father or my Aunt Hazelle (She's really my mom's cousin, but I call her my Aunt.) accompanying her, she'd come home without us. I'm not sure if she really forgot or if she was trying to get rid of us…

Ikuto went into the kitchen to take inventory on what little food we had. All he could find was a bottle of Poccari Sweat and a Hostess Cupcake that was going to expire the next day. Seemed like a completely healthy and acceptable dinner to him. He took his cupcake and sports drink up to his room and locked the door. He knew I'd be pissed if I found out he ate the last of the food. It's not that I'd be mad that he didn't offer me any, it'd be that I'd be mad just because I didn't find it first. There's sort of a "survival of the fittest" mentality in this house when it comes to food. If you were able to find food or con your way into getting someone to give you some, great; if you didn't, sucks to be you. If we got our hands on food, we ate it immediately and as fast as we could. I know it's definitely not normal. All my life people have complained that I eat way too fast and that I should slow down before I choke or something. That is just a lasting side effect of growing up too poor and too hungry.

Ikuto also had fallen victim to this side effect, because as he stuffed as much of cupcake as he could fit in his mouth, he choked and had to spit out the half-chewed brownish mess of cupcake into his hand and took a sip of the already opened Poccari Sweat. Once he washed the bit of cupcake that had lodged itself in his esophagus, he put the gross, saliva-covered, mushy mess back into his mouth and continued to eat it. Yeah, I know to a normal person that's pretty damn gross but that was all we had to eat in the entire house. If he threw that away, he'd be throwing away what could possibly be his last meal for the next few days.

After he finished his cupcake and licked the entirety of the remaining chocolate residue off of his hands, he washed his hands with Purell (Okay, I admit that's gross and I'm not going to excuse it.) and when he put the little bottle of horse cum-smelling liquid back in his grey messenger bag, he saw the VHS tape in there. He took it out and examined the case again. It remained unchanged from when he looked at it in the school. The case was still a plain white color and the words ThanksKilling (2009) were still written on the front. He then decided to open up the case and examine the tape inside.

When he opened up a case, a small folded up piece of paper fell out of the case. He unfolded the piece of paper and saw that it was a copy-and-pasted Wikipedia article about the film. On the top of the page was the article that described the film as being an American independent comedy horror film about a cursed turkey that killed college students while they were on Thanksgiving break. Apparently the film had somehow garnered reviews from Forbes Magazine and the Boston Globe. Forbes said that "if you can enjoy laughing at a bad movie, definitely add this to your list." While the Boston Globe called it "cheerily awful." There was also a small tidbit about a sequel that was currently in production. It said that the funds for the sequel were collected through Kickstarter. Really? People actually donated money though Kickstarter for something that just from its Wikipedia article, you can tell is terrible beyond all of your wildest beliefs? I… I really am starting to lose faith in humanity…

Below the article was a picture of the movie poster/DVD cover for the film. It featured a turkey, most likely the cursed, murderous turkey mentioned in the article. The only three colors that you could really see in the picture were red, yellow and green. I think the word for that is trichromatic, but I could just be making stuff up there. In white writing in the top right corner of the picture was text that read WARNING! BOOBS in the first second! And below that was the title of the film written in dark yellow letters. After that it read Staring Turkie. At the very bottom of the poster, the text said The CULT CLASSIC now on DeeVeeDee! Gobble, Gobble MOTHERFUCKER! THE ULTIMATE LOW-BUDGET EXPERIENCE! A KILLER TURKEY COMEDY/HORROR FLICK!

Well, if that doesn't convince you that the film is Oscar-worthy, I don't know what will.

Multiple things about the tape made Ikuto suspicious. First off, the film was supposedly made in two-thousand nine, but VHS was pretty much phased out as an entertainment medium by two-thousand seven. Hardly anyone had a VHS player anymore. We still had one, though. Before our father left, our mother pulled it out every year on Christmas along with one of those old fat-backed TVs that was compatible with the VHS system to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a VHS she acquired sometime during her childhood and made it a tradition to watch every Christmas. Ikuto, Utau and I had pointed out to her several times that she could just get the movie on DVD or Blu-ray or even rent it on Netflix, but she insisted the movie was much better on VHS.

So, that aside, Ikuto was curious as to why a film that was released in two-thousand nine was on such an outdated entertainment medium. His first thoughts were that the film was pirated, but then why would it be on VHS? If you pirate something off the internet, usually you either kept it on your computer or put it on a DVD. It's probably extremely hard or more likely impossible to transfer a pirated film to a VHS nowadays. Even if it was possible, why go all the trouble to copy a supposedly crappy film? It just didn't add up…

And what better way to find out than to watch the film yourself? So, Ikuto went into the family room, pulled the old TV and VCR out of the closet, set them up and played the tape.

I'm not gonna say what he saw, just know that it had a topless pilgrim lady that was wandering through the woods and a killer turkey with an ax. Understandably so, after watching five minutes of the film, he turned it off and went to bed.

* * *

The early morning rays of light were just slipping through Ikuto's bedroom window when he woke up and was treated to the shock of... Well, not a life time but definitely that week. What was that shock? Well, that was me sitting at his desk on his laptop (Which he received courtesy of One Laptop Per Child.) which was probably filled to the brim with things he never ever wanted anyone to see ever. He immediately shot up and was about to say something when I beat him to it.

"Oh, you're awake." I said. "Hey, what's Captain Stabbin'?"

"What?" He said.

"Captain Stabbin'." I said. "You have it bookmarked on your browser. From what I've seen so far it has something to do with a guy in a Captain's Hat and a bunch of chicks on a boat." That's when he snapped to his senses.

"Get off!" He demanded as he got out of bed.

"Huh?" I said in mock confusion. "Why?"

"Get off now!" He said pushing me out of the chair and quickly x-ing out of the window. He gave a small sigh of relief before turning to me. "What do you want?"

"Not to be rudely thrown out of chairs." I said.

"No, I mean why are you in my room?" He said pressing the palm of his hand to his forehead.

"Oh." I said as I got up off the ground. "I was wondering if you have anything you want to get rid of."

"Anything I want to get rid of?" He repeated.

"Yeah, like books and movies." I said. "Crap like that."

"You woke me up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday just to ask me if I had any crap I wanted to sell." Ikuto said. "And on top of that you went through my computer without asking me."

"Uh, yeah." I said. Man, am I stupid bitch.

"You know, you could've asked me this last night, before I had gone to bed." He pointed out.

"Yeah..." I said. Fucking dumb ass bitch.

Ikuto sighed.

"If I give you something, will you leave my room and let me sleep in until a reasonable hour?" He asked.

"Uh... Sure, I guess." To be honest, I was kind of half expecting him to snap at me.

Ikuto went into his closet and took out a box full of old DVDs and VHS tapes and handed them to me.

"Hold on." He said. "I think I have more in the family room. He then disappeared into the room across the hall from his, then came back out with a couple of DVDs and a VHS copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in his hand.

"There, that should do it." Ikuto said. "Now will you leave?"

"Alright, fine." I said. "I'm going, I'm going. Jesus Christ..."

Then I left his room and started walking down the hall to put the box down with the other stuff I had collected when a thought struck me.

Wait, isn't Saturday a school day?

* * *

The last room I had to go through was my mother's and I was dreading it. Although thanks to all the Ambien and Valium she takes she's a very heavy sleeper, but there is the chance that she'll wake up naturally while I'm in the middle of stealing her crap. Yeah, I'll admit I'm stealing. Do I feel bad about it? No. If it's not necessary to survival, we don't need it. We need food and we need it now.

I stepped into my mothers room as quietly as I possibly could. I knew I had already pawned off everything in her closet that wasn't clothes or shoes, so I went straight for the dresser. She had a small wooden jewelry box on top of it, but I knew that there was nothing of value. She keeps it there to trick thieves. All of her real jewelry is in a hidden panel in her dresser.


	4. The Second Heir (OV)

**Ya'll are gonna fuckin' hate me before this is over.**

* * *

In the year of two-thousand thirty eight, it seemed very rare to find any semblance of hope in the world. Every day the world seemed a little bit darker. Every day people marched from their homes to their jobs and back to their homes in a way that seemed almost second-nature to them. As if they were programed from birth to follow this same daily pattern. It's very sad. Mostly because deep inside, everyone knows this is not the path they initially wanted to follow.

As children, all of these people had dreams. Dreams that they wanted to achieve more than anything, however, due to either circumstance or societal pressure or another unspecified third cause, they all gave up their dreams to follow this daily monotonous path.

A girl, young in years but not in intellect often watched these people from the roof of a high-rise building, staring at them with a gaze of both pity and envy; pity over the fact that they had been so weak that they had given up their dreams, envious because they even had dreams to give up in the first place.

Her large sapphire eyes studied each and every one of the ants below her. She was up so high that she couldn't see the details of their face or tell whether the particular ant she was staring at was male or female, but she knew very well that each of them would have lines of stress carved into their faces and a permanent look of exhaustion unwillingly plastered on their faces. She wondered what kind of dreams these people had; what kind of person they wanted to be before they gave it all up to become hard-working middle class drones.

She sighed. There was no point in it now. These people had chosen the path they had wanted to take in life and she had done the same. They had chosen to throw away their dreams in exchange for an easily deplorable life of mediocrity that only promised dissatisfaction and nothingness at the end of the finish line, while she had chosen never to even think of aspiring to anything better and leading a life full of sin and regret.

_This world is hopeless._ She thought to herself. _If people keep giving up on their dreams like this, then corruption and greed will take over this planet and there will be no positive future for anyone._

As she exited the roof, she couldn't help but think, _maybe it already has_.

* * *

She walked the incredibly long path home. Toride is about an hour's train ride from Tokyo. This was the town in which she lived. She was born in this town, but she wasn't exactly "raised" there even though she had lived there pretty much nearly her entire life.

She was walking up the main road in order to go to a friend's house to see if she could crash there for a few hours, seeing as trying to sleep on the roof of that building wasn't exactly working out for her. Something about being up so high made her made her kind of soul-searchy. Plus, the bright lights from the city below didn't help anything. She'd go home and sleep in her own bed, but given the fight she had with her mother the night before, she didn't think she'd be able to peacefully walk up to her room and go to bed.

As she walked down the street and passed an alleyway, she heard someone say "Hey you". She thought for a second that it was someone talking to her and turned around to see who it was, but she didn't see anyone.

"Your allowance was in there yesterday, wasn't it?" She quickly looked down the alley way to see to middle school aged kids harassing some kid who at the most had to have been a third-grader. She sighed as she pulled out her phone to call the police. The Japanese Police might be dumb enough to let hardened criminals like her run around freely, but they were just smart enough to handle a case of a kid getting his money jacked by a pair of teenaged punks.

"But… But I…" She heard the primary school aged child stammer as she dialed the numbers one-one.

Just as she was about to dial the zero, she heard someone say "I can't let that pass". She looked up to see a girl with pink hair and golden eyes. Her school uniform, which consisted of a red plaid skirt, white dress shirt, a red tie, and a black coat, was customized with various punk accessories. She looked tough, but the older girl watching from the alleyway's entrance knew automatically that this girl wasn't that much older than the boy the two punks were picking on. In fact, this girl wasn't that much younger than herself. The sapphire-eyed girl knew things were about to get ugly and pressed the zero on her phone's keypad.

"Huh? Who is this girl?" She heard one of the punks say as she pressed her extremely old cell phone to her ear.

"W-wait a second, that's…" The second punk started stammering in shock and fear, causing the sapphire-eyed girl to lower her cell phone from her ear to the earpiece speaker being pressed against her pale neck. "Hinamori Amu from Seiyo Elementary?"

Just as the girl with faux black hair began to wonder what the big deal was, the second punk went on to explain.

"She's rumored to have beaten Sakura Elementary's Soccer team soccer team by herself and I heard that at her old school, she got the students and teachers to do anything she wanted them to do! Even the Principal was afraid of her!"

The girl with dark hair and sapphire eyes couldn't help but internally laugh at this.

_Oh, kids… What other crazy shit will they come up with next? I mean, come on. Seriously? What does this girl have? Geass? There's no way any of that's true._

"That's the spicy student from Seiyo Elementary that I've heard about!" The kid who was previously in the middle of getting his allowance jacked suddenly shouted in a fanboyish tone. "Hinamori Amu!"

"…So what?" Was all the pink haired girl said in response, still keeping her cool, tough girl look that did little to impress the girl with dyed black hair who was looking on at the whole scene.

Apparently, the two teenaged punks must have thought she said "I'm gonna take a katana, use it to rip out your heart, and give it as an offering to my lord, Satan" because they ran like a nuclear missile was about to come crashing down in that very spot with shouts of "We're sorry" and "We'll never do it again".

As soon as the pathetic punks were gone, the young boy pulled out a piece of paper, thanked the older girl and asked her for her autograph. Meanwhile, an elderly woman seemingly appeared out of nowhere and commented on what an admirable young woman Amu was. Amu looked nervous for a second, but quickly put back up her cool and tough exterior.

"…Are you an idiot?" Amu said. "It was just an annoyance as I was walking to school… Be careful from now on."

As Amu walked off, both the old woman and the young boy was taken aback by how "cool" she was. Amu didn't notice the presence of the dark-haired onlooker as she passed. The onlooker couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation. Just the thought of two thirteen-year-old boys running scared of a girl who had to at least be ten years old would make anyone snort a little bit. However, she was more laughing at how Amu had been acting like tough shit even though if they actually had challenged her to a skin-on-skin fight she probably would have lost and Amu probably knew that herself. The onlooker didn't know why she found that funny, she just did.

Her laughter immediately ceased when she had remembered that she had dialed the emergency number for the police and didn't say anything on the phone.

* * *

**If this lasts ten chapters, I'm gonna post this on . (With the lyrics removed, of course.) Just know that nothing too drastic will happen to change the events of the regular _Shugo Chara! _Series and if you haven't watched the series or read the manga in a while it might be a good idea to do that while reading this fic.**

* * *

**This was originally posted to the Hi no Nami Blogspot on 12/10/13.**


	5. Prologue I (OV)

"Marceline." A deep voice called out to me.

"No." I groaned into the smoky darkness around me.

"Marceline." The voice repeated.

"No." I groaned again.

"Wake the fuck up mother fucker." The voice commanded and by force, I sat up.

"What do you want from me?" I shouted/asked.

The voice laughed and then said: "Remember me?"

"I killed you!" I shouted back. _I killed them? I thought to myself. I don't think I've ever killed anyone with that deep a voice._

"Thought I was dead, didn't you?" The voice said mockingly.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" I screamed.

"I'm alive!" The voice responded then laughed again. "Get up." The voice commanded very seriously once it had calmed down from its laughing fit.

"No." I groaned again.

"Get up." The voice commanded again. "Get up and look in the mirror, it's just a reflection."

"I DON'T WANT TO!" I screamed but my body forced me to get up and walk towards the mirror which had suddenly appeared out of the smoky abyss.

"Look in the mirror." The voice commanded once again, ignoring my screams of protest. "Look in the mirror. You're NOTHING. You're NOTHING without me." That voice put a lot of emphasis on the word "nothing". "Look in the motherfucking mirror!" It demanded again when I tried to look away. Then it began laughing again.

This entire time I was screaming one sentence over and over again. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

At that point I had fallen out of bed and woke up. I looked around my room. Still dark. Still quiet. Still empty. Thank god. I looked at the clock. One-twenty-three in the morning. I only got twenty-six minutes of sleep. Great. Now I get to lie awake in my bed for two hours and wait to get twenty or thirty more minutes of sleep before I wake up from another nightmare.


	6. Black Diamond Chapter One Scraps

**This is just the stuff I've edited out of _Hi no Nami: Black Diamond_. I still need to have the stuff I'm keeping beta-read. Hopefully it won't be too long!**

* * *

I wish I had some tiles to count. I think as I stare at my feet, which have somehow been able to remain firmly planted on the carpeted floor. That'd take my mind off of what happened to me.

Oh, who was I trying to kid? Nothing could take my mind off of what happened. I was traumatized, victimized, and violated. I doubt even a therapist would be able to figure out a way to distract me from that.

Calm down, Marci. All you have to do is keep moving.

Yeah, all I have to do is keep walking.

We're walking, we're walking.

As I reach the end of the hall, I press the button for the elevator. It's then that all of the oxygen decides to leave my body.

Where am I going? I can't tell anyone. If I did, then they'd call the cops. I'm alone. I almost fall to my knees at that thought. Thank god the wall was there, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to catch myself. I'm alone. No one's gonna help me. I'm completely and utterly alone.

The elevator doors open and I'm able to calm myself long enough to take two steps forward and press the button for the lobby. I crumble once the doors shut, though.

We're walking, we're walking.

* * *

Shame.

Fear.

Those are the only two emotions I can remember feeling in the days following what had... You know what? I should stop saying "what had happened to me". We all know what had happened to me, so why ignore the elephant in the room. I was raped. I, Marceline Tsukiyomi, was raped by Logan Huntzburger. It happened. We all know it happened. I... I...

I don't feel any better by admitting that. In fact, I feel worse. I am a trained assassin. I should have been able to stop him. I should have been able to get him off of me. I should have...

It's my fault.

I was perfectly capable of getting him off of me, but I didn't. Why? Why didn't I do anything to get him off of me. I mean, I did scratch and kick to holy hell. He just overpowered me... I shouldn't have let myself be overpowered. I could have done more. I could have screamed louder than I did or used teeth. But, I didn't. I didn't and I have to live with that forever.

Yeah. Years later I'm still berating myself about this. It doesn't matter though. I deserve this. I deserve this for all of the lives that I've taken. I deserve to be damaged beyond repair. I deserve having to walk around with my guard up all the time. I deserve not being able to be in a room alone with a guy unless I have at least a switch blade on my person. I deserve to jump a little every time someone touches me from behind. For everything I've done, I at least deserve this.

I got off track. I should start over, shouldn't I?


	7. A Teacher Shows an R Rated Film

**This is just something silly I wrote in the Chapter Two Re-write of _Hi no Nami: The Game of Life_ and immediately cut out because it did nothing to further the story. Yeah, I know it's short, but who cares? Anyways, enjoy. ****Oh, and yes before you ask, I did hear about that Spanish teacher getting arrested for showing the exact same movie to a group of High Schoolers. That's kind of why I wrote this.**

* * *

She didn't have much time to process what she was thinking, though, because a few seconds later a teacher walked into the room.

"Alright, everyone," The young blonde woman called out as she walked in the room. "take your seats!" The girls that surrounded Amu immediately dispersed and went back to their respective seats. As they did so, the teacher wrote the kanji for her name on the board. "I am Maki-sensei." She said, turning to face the class. "Your normal teacher, Hashimoto-sensei, is out today because apparently she didn't know that having sex while you're thirty-nine weeks pregnant can induce labor. Now, because of that, she didn't leave any lesson plans and this is kind of my first time substitute teaching, ever, so instead of doing anything productive, we are going to watch a movie." She then pulled a DVD case out of her purse that had a picture of a cloaked figure reading a book to an infant on the cover. "It's called The ABCs of Death. I don't know a single thing about it, but apparently it's in English, Spanish, Japanese and Thai, so it must help with your linguistic skills or something. Don't worry. I've been informed that you go to Gym and Art at Ten and One o'clock respectively, so we'll just pause the movie and start it back up again when we come back. Now, are there any questions?"

None of the kids raised their hands to object. To be honest, I'm not surprised that they didn't. I'm sure none of those kids had even heard of the movie. I don't know. Maybe because it has an R rating and has a score of thirty-five on Rotten Tomatoes. But I'm just taking a shot in the dark here.


	8. The Game of Life Chapter Three Scraps

**This was edited out of the re-write of the third chapter of ****_Hi no Nami: The Game of Life_****.**

* * *

"Oh, come on Sarah!" I said. "Just give it a chance!"

"No." She said. "I told you, I don't like kids' shows."

"**Please**!" I begged. "Just watch one episode! I mean, I know it's a kids' show but it's really good! Well, at first it's really slow to develop, but around episode twenty or so it starts getting a plot and it's really good and it makes you start questioning things about the world and the characters..."

"Marceline," Sarah said. "you couldn't get me to watch _Doctor Who_, what makes you think you're going to get me to watch _Steven Universe_?"

"Sheer determination?" I said. "Also, I haven't given up on getting you to watch _Doctor Who_."

"Oh joy." Sarah said sarcastically as she took a sip of her red ICE-E.

"Please just watch it." I said. I said putting my blue one down on the wall we sat on. "I promise, it's worth it."

"I'm not watching a show meant for seven-year-olds." Sarah said. "For god's sake, I'm seventeen. I'm too old and too smart for that shit."

"Says the girl who doesn't even do her own homework..." I muttered.

"What?" Sarah said.

"Don't you think it's a little wrong to say that just because it's for kids, that automatically means it's crap?" I asked.

"Doesn't it?" Sarah said. "I mean, think of all the crap we grew up with. Post-movie _Spongebob_, _Back at the Barnyard_, _Sonic X_, _Flapjack_, _One Piece_, _Da Boom Crew_..."

"One, I didn't think _Sonic X_ was that bad." I said. "And although I don't like _One Piece_, I will give it the fact that it's been able to be good at what it does and maintain it's popularity for a long time."

"Are you kidding me?" Sarah said. "That show was crap. The dubbing was terrible and it felt like the whole concept was watered down for little kids."

"Dubbing?" I said. "What language did you watch it in? That doesn't sound like the show from what little I've seen of it."

"English." Explains it.

"Two," I said. "Other than _Spongebob_, I've never heard of any of those shows."

"Really?" Sarah said. "Then what did you grow up watching?"

"Not much really." I said. "_South Park_... _Real World/Road Rules Challenge_..."

"I thought you hated MTV." Sarah said.

"Yeah..." I said. "My sister just left it on all the time hoping they'd play music. They didn't."

* * *

**Oh, BTW, _Doctor Who _is technically "family programming". To be honest, I don't exactly buy that. I mean, come on! Who in their right minds would let River Song and Jack Harkness be on a show that has a large audience of young children.**


	9. The Heart's Egg (OV)

**I sometimes think I should try crystal meth, but then I think "nah, probably shouldn't".**

* * *

"Marceline!" I heard her shout as I ascended the stairs.

"Oh, shut the fuck up you bitch!" I shouted in response.

"Don't use that kind of language with me!" She shouted back.

"Oh, shut the fuck up already!" I shouted back. "You don't give two fucks about me so I can do and say whatever the fuck I want!"

"No, it doesn't!" She shouted. As I reached the top of the stairs and looked back I could see tears streaming down her face. "I'm your mother!"

_And a shitty one at that._ I thought to myself.

"Like I give a fuck!" I shouted back as I angrily marched to my room and flung open the door.

"Tsukiyomi Marceline!" My mother shouted.

"Go to hell, bitch!" I shouted as I slammed the door shut. I immediately locked it and pushed the dresser in front of it to keep that bitch from coming in here.

_Stupid whore. Thinks she knows everything about me when she doesn't know shit. If I want to go out with my friends, I will. If I want to not come home for days on end, I will. I'm eleven years old. She doesn't have complete control over me anymore._

I sighed. She had started banging on the door and calling my name so I turned on the stereo and turned it all the way up to block her out. It was playing "Sing for the Moment" by Eminem. The perfect song for the mood I was in.

"Jesus Christ, that bitch is psycho." I muttered to myself. "Wish I could run away."

I sighed again. _No way that's ever going to happen. I'm gonna have to live every day of the next seven years of my life fucking going at it with this bitch. I wish I could kill her, but there'd be no point to it. I'd still be suffering every single day of my life._

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to calm myself down.

_You know what I just need to get away from this shit._

I sighed, grabbed my backpack and my coat from the desk chair, and jumped out my broken window.

* * *

It took twelve knocks for anyone to answer. I was about to pick up the hatchet that was on the ground and break in. Although it was around eleven or twelve at night, I knew people were there because the lights were on and the music was blasting loud enough to wake up someone in Vietnam. (Probably did, too.) Needless to say, by the time Ichirou opened the door I was back to being pissed.

"What the fucking hell?!" I shouted when he finally came to the door. "I've been out there for twenty fucking minutes! You're lucky I didn't break open your fucking window!"

"Sorry…" Ichirou lazily muttered as he ran his fingers through his short, curly blonde hair. "We've been' doin' some stuff… Music…" I could tell by the fact that his eyes were bloodshot and he couldn't form a complete sentence that he was higher than the fucking International Space Station and just decided to drop it.

"Whatever just give me a beer." I said.

"Sure…" He said walking out of the doorframe. I followed him inside.

"...Only light beer… Want that?" He asked opening up his refrigerator.

"Better than nothin'." I said. Ichirou grabbed a can out of the fridge and threw it to me. "Thanks." I said as I caught it. "Hey, is everyone else downstairs?"

"Yeah…" He said.

"Have they been doing the same stuff you have?" I wanted to make sure they weren't all like that. If they were, I'd just leave. I don't like dealing with a bunch of people who are all high like that.

"Nah… Just drinkin'…" He said.

"Uh, dude, are you okay?" Something told me he might've done more than just cannabis.

"Yeah… Just gonna lie down…" He said as he turned towards one of the bedrooms off to the side of the house. That was the last time he was seen alive. We assume he died at some point during the night. His body is still in that bedroom. Everyone is afraid of going in there and taking care of it. If anyone asks about the smell, we just tell them that a raccoon died under the house. However, at the time I didn't know any of that and assumed the guy just needed a nap to sober up a bit, so I just shrugged and went downstairs. I still kind of feel guilty about that.

The basement in this house is weird. Actually, in Japan, just having a basement in your house is weird. Most houses only have two floors, a ground-level floor and an upstairs. There aren't many houses with basements that I've seen. This house is different, though. Not only does it have a basement, but I don't think it was originally intended to be a basement. I think it was originally intended to be a bomb shelter, mostly because the entrance to it is a hidden trap door in the master bedroom closet and you have to go down a really long ladder to get down there. (This is pretty inconvenient to us because we're usually drunk and high by the time we leave the place and can't even walk in a straight line, let alone climb a ladder without getting two or three steps up and then falling down.) Given the fact that it takes a while to get up and down the ladder, I would say that it's pretty deep underground. Plus, given the fact that the metal coating the walls has a silvery appearance and tarnishes easily, I would have to say that it's lead that's covering them. (Yes, I have expressed to everyone who usually hangs out down there that it is likely lead on the walls and they could fall victim to lead poisoning. Apparently, they don't care and to be very frank, I don't either.) Lead is very dense and is able to stop radiation. It would make sense for someone to coat an entire room with it if they were trying to build a bomb shelter. My guess is, it was either built during World War II, or built sometime after World War II by a paranoid previous owner.

The only thing I really question about the basement is how the current owner, Kai Nashi, got two couches, a pair of arm chairs, a stereo, and a coffee table down there. I mean, the only entrance is that small trap door and it's kind of a long drop to the bottom. I doubt that most of that stuff would be able to fit through the trap door, let alone survive the long drop to the bottom if in the likely event of whoever was moving that stuff down there were to drop it. I've been over it nine different ways and I just can't figure out how that would be possible. The only conclusion that I've come to is that I just have to accept that it's like the mystery of how Gibbs got the boat out of his basement on _NCIS_. There's no logical way for the boat to get out of there, but Gibbs somehow found a way to get the boat out of there and we all just have to accept that we will never know.

"What's up bitches?" I said as I reached the bottom of the ladder (somehow amazingly without falling on my ass).

"Hey Shady." They all said unenthusiastically.

"Ya'll don't sound too happy to see me." I observed. "What's up?"

"Well, I'm just bummed because I have to take my grandmother shopping at the mall tomorrow." My friend Sarah Vamparah said as pulled a stray blonde hair back behind her ear.

"What's so bad about that?" I asked.

"She still thinks it's nineteen-fifty-two." Sarah explained. "I can already picture how this is gonna go. 'No, grandma, we don't use those words anymore. That boy is allowed to drink from the fountain.'"

"Oh." I said. "Sorry about that. Wait, what is she doing in Japan if she's racist?"

"My dad brought her here." She explained. "He's gonna 'take care of her' and he wants me to give her one last fun day before that."

"I'm guessing 'take care of her' doesn't mean he's gonna put her in a home, right?" I asked.

"No, it does not." She clarified.

"Don't worry, my lips are sealed." I assured. "Why is everyone else bummed out?"

"There isn't anything to do." Fukui Akiko said as she leaned backwards on the arm of the couch she was sitting on, collapsing onto the couch backwards. "I'm bored."

"Same here." Yukimura Chouko, Akiko's friend, said in a bored tone as she flipped through a magazine. "We wouldn't be this bored if the guys just took us out dancing like we asked them to two hours ago."

"Hey! I ain't payin' twenty thousand yen just so my girlfriend can get her ass felt up by other guys!" Kimura Michi, Chouko's boyfriend, shouted.

"Go to hell!" Chouko shouted in retaliation.

"SHUT UP YOU STUPID BITCH!" He said as he was about to lunge for his girlfriend. I immediately got between them as I didn't want to have to go through another murder trial.

"HEY!" I shouted. "IF YOU DON'T CHILL OUT RIGHT NOW KIMURA, I WILL SHOOT YOU!" That caused Kimura to immediately stop in his tracks. He knows when I threaten to shoot someone, I mean it. That was what the last murder trial was about. He went back to his seat, still looking kind of pissed, but was willing to put that aside for now.

"Alright." I said as I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "Now look, if I've learned anything in the past seventeen years of my life, it's that if you're bored, you just go out and make your own fun."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Akiko asked.

I think everyone noticed the devilish smile that crossed my face.

* * *

"Shady, is this legal?" Akiko asked.

"I've never heard of anyone being arrested for it, so it's probably fine." I said.

"That's because it's a fucking retarded idea." Kimura said.

"Shut up, Kimura." I said.

"I mean, this is dangerous." Kimura pointed out. "People could die."

"Like I care, Kimura." I said.

"We could all go to jail." Kimura once again stated the obvious.

"Look," I said looking him straight in his grey eyes. "if you want out, leave. Don't let any of the rest of us get arrested before we even get to have our fun."

"Fine." He said as he marched off. "Fuck you all."

"Why do we hang out with him?" I asked Sarah as we continued on to our destination.

"I don't know." Sarah said.

* * *

"The next showing of _The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug _will begin in five minutes." The feminine voice on the intercom at the movie theater said.

"This is gonna be so much fun!" Akiko said as her red eyes filled with excitement.

"You have the matches, right Chouko?" I asked.

"In my purse." She said patting the bag.

"Good." I said.

"I hope they aren't doing bag checks." Sarah said. "If they are, that would really ruin what we have planned."

"Don't worry, they aren't gonna do bag checks." I assured. "They're too dumb to learn from others mistakes. Well, actually in this case, it wouldn't be learning from anyone's mistakes 'cause the Aurora guy didn't sneak his guns into the theater, he waited 'till the movie was halfway through then snuck out through the emergency exit and got the gun from his car, but that's beside the point."

"But this is a pretty big movie premiere." Sarah pointed out. "They might just be a little more cautious than usual."

"You think this is a big movie premiere?" I asked in disbelief.

"Well, yeah." Sarah said. "I mean, I've never been a fan of this _Lord of the Rings _crap but I do know a lot of people happen to like it."

"Yeah, but I doubt very many people would want to sit through what is essentially a three-hour long episode of _Game of Thrones_." I said.

"Wait, is that what this movie is about?" Chouko asked.

"Basically." I said.

"Then why are we going into this movie when we can just go to my place and watch the DVD I have of the first season of _Game of Thrones_ for free?" Akiko asked.

"Look, it was the first movie that was showing." I said agitatedly. "Unless you wanna go watch _American Hustle _or whatever other shit they're showing here and miss our show, you are going to sit down and watch the first thirty minutes of this _Game of Thrones _rip-off. Got it?"

"Got it." She said dejectedly as she ran her fingers from her short pink tresses down to her black extensions while her dyed-purple bangs covered her eyes.

"Oh good." Sarah said as we approached the usher's stand. "They aren't doing bag checks."

"Thank god." Chouko said as she pushed her blonde bangs, which had streaks of turquois in them, to the right side of her face.

"Told you so." I muttered melodically under my breath. Sarah must've heard it, though because she gave me kind of a pissed off glare.

* * *

Once we took our seats in the theater, we had to sit through those stupid movie trivia cards, behind the scenes looks at the new season of _Pretty Little Liars_, some movie about stealing art back from the Nazis, and some other movie called _Transcendence_, commercials for everything from Coca-Cola to promoting the Victory Tour for this year's _Hunger Games,_ (I don't think anyone in Japan knows that children actually die in that.) and trailers for _Polar Bears, Divergent, _and _Her_ before the actual movie started. You know, they really should tell people to go into the theaters five minutes before the actual movie starts so that way they don't have to suffer through nearly an hour of crap. All that does is make a movie that's already longer than it needs to be even longer.

Once the movie was about thirty minutes through, I decided that the other movie goers had let down their guards enough to be taken by serious surprise by my plan. I was sitting in the aisle seat. Sarah sat to the left of me with her bag open. To the left of her was Chouko, who had the matches. Akiko sat to the left of Chouko in the seat closest to the wall. I reached into Sarah's purse and took out the key to my plan, M-80 Firecrackers. (Do not ask me how I got them.) I motioned to Chouko to give me the matches.

"Hey, Shady," Akiko said wearily as she noticed Chouko pulling the matches out of her jacket pocket. "are you sure this is okay?"

"Oh, it's not okay." I said as I reached over and took the matches from Chouko. "It's illegal."

"Illegal!" Akiko said a little too loud for my liking. Both Sarah and Chouko shushed her. "What do you mean it's illegal?" Akiko said this time in a more quiet tone.

"It's illegal to set off explosives indoors anywhere in Japan." I explained. "Anywhere in the world, really. You'd have to be a real idiot not to know that." I tried striking a match, but it wouldn't light.

"Th-Then why are you doing it?" Akiko asked, sounding a bit fearful as she did so.

I tried striking the same match again, but once again, it wouldn't light.

"Because it'll cause a panic and panic is fun." I simply said. I tried striking the same match a third time, but with no luck. "Is this one a dud?" I muttered to myself.

"Plus it'll cause a pretty cool light show." Sarah added. "You know, that is until the fire gets pretty bad and we all have to get the fuck out of here."

"Crap." I muttered. The fourth strike confirmed my suspicions. I threw the dud match on the ground and pulled another match out of the book.

"Aren't you guys worried about consequences and shit?" Akiko asked fearfully.

"I'm above the law." I said as I struck the match. No luck.

"My family's got a very good lawyer." Sarah said. "If worse comes to worst he can just throw together an Affluenza defense and I'll get off with only ten years of probation."

"My step-father raped me and my mother tried to set me on fire." Chouko said. "I think prison is a safer environment for me than home."

"Ah-ha!" I quietly cheered. I had finally gotten the match to ignite. "Yes, now to just-" My celebration was cut short by a flashlight being shined in my face.

"We got reports of suspicious activity going on in this row." The usher said in a scarily strict voice. "Would you four please come with me to the manager's office."

_Oh shit._ I thought to myself.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," The manager said. "the four of you tried to set off M-80 firecrackers in a movie theater."

"That is correct, sir." I said in the calmest and non-defiant manner I possibly could.

"Do you know how stupid that is?" He was clearly irate. "You could have started a fire! This whole building could have burned down! Someone could have gotten hurt! You yourselves could have gotten hurt! What could have possibly possessed you to do something like this?"

"Easy." I said. "The same thing that causes people to do everything else that they do in their lives: boredom."

"Boredom is not an excuse for your actions." The manager continued on his angry rant. "Do you know how seriously people take these kinds of crimes, especially after what happened in the United States? You'll be lucky if the police don't arrest you for terrorism. Now, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

"I'm above the law." I said again.

"I have Affluenza." Sarah said.

"I'm safer in Jail." Chouko said.

"PLEASE DON'T SEND ME TO PRISON!" Akiko cried.

Obviously the manager didn't like what we said in our defense and looked like he was about to blow a gasket. However, lucky for us, Sarah got an idea. She took of the royal blue sweater she had to wear for school, undid her dark blue tie, and undid a few buttons of her white button-up shirt. She tousled her hair a bit, before crossing her legs and put her finger to her lips while she did sort of a pout.

"Kanrisha-san**(1)**," Sarah said in the cutest, most innocent voice she could do. "we're really sorry we did this. Do you think you could just let us off with a warning, seeing as this is the first time we've done something as serious as this?"

You would not believe the flood of blood that came out of that man's nose.

* * *

**(1) Kanrisha means manager or administrator in Japanese.**

* * *

**Okay, so here is chapter two. This one was easier to write than chapter one. Mostly because I did chapter one in a POV that I'm not used to writing in. In fact, I wrote chapter one in that POV by accident. I forgot that I already wrote the Prologue in Marceline's POV and I guess at some point I decided to do something different. Yes, I know the first chapter was bad, but I'm not changing it because, one, I'm lazy, and two, every chapter is bad. Not just that one.**

* * *

**This was originally uploaded to the Hi no Nami Blogspot on 12/26/13.**


	10. In Your Eyes (OV)

**I regret ninety-eight percent of the comments and reviews I make on You Tube, DeviantART, and FanFiction.**

* * *

The office had green walls and a red carpet. Although there was a chandelier, two floor lamps, and a desk lamp, the room was dimly lit because it was so big. Along one wall there was nothing but bookshelf after bookshelf filled with nothing but legal tomes, books on business ethics, and huge binders with client information. There was a small sitting area near the door, complete with leather couches and a television, which was turned off. A stereo, which was placed just behind one of the couches, was playing the song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by the Platters at a low volume.

In the center of the room a man at approximately sixty-five years of age sat at his desk contemplating what to do next. His name was Jacob Thompson. He was a graduate of one of America's most prestigious law schools who came to Japan to work as a lawyer for one of the most powerful companies in the world, Easter Incorporated. For nearly forty years he handled the legal side of Easter's international affairs. He found ways around many laws and was pretty much the man who gave Easter the ability to do whatever they wanted in whatever country they wanted to do it in.

However, recently he discovered the consequences of his actions while on a trip with his wife to Indonesia. While talking to someone at a restaurant, he mentioned that he worked for the Easter Corporation in Japan. This comment was overheard by several locals and he was attacked. They called him every foul name in the book; "Bastard", "Fascist", "Slave Master" and worst of all, "Murderer".

It turned out that Easter had built a very large, unsafe factory in Indonesia. They employed thousands of people-including children-to work long hours in a hot, decrepit building making tennis shoes and cheap electronics. Mr. Thompson was horrified by the discovery of that fact, but was more horrified when he returned to Japan and started doing some research. It had turned out that by finding ways around the laws in various countries he had destroyed the lives of thousands, if not millions of people.

He confronted Easter's Director, Hoshina Kazuomi about this. Kazuomi told him that if he went to the media or the police, they would be forced to "take care" of him. Obviously, Mr. Thompson didn't listen to him and had a conference call with _the Tokyo Daily News_, _the New York Times_, and _the Wall Street Journal _scheduled for later that evening. Easter wasn't going to have any of that, which is why they were making me handle it.

I was standing on the roof of Mr. Thompson's office building, looking down into the room through a skylight. My long, dark hair was tied back in a long braid down my back and I was wearing the uniform that Easter made me wear when I was working, which was a black, short-sleeved button-up shirt with a cyan tie around my neck. The shirt was made out of a special material that was thinner, yet stronger than most materials used in things such as bullet-proof vests. I had black shorts on underneath a cyan colored skirt which was made out of a material that stretched, making running in a skirt less difficult. The stockings I was wearing went up to my lower thighs and were made out of the same material as the shirt. The shoes I was wearing were specially designed to have better traction than a truck tire and had a secret weapon installed in the toe. I also had on cyan gloves that did nothing more than keep my fingerprints from getting on shit.

I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, which would be when Mr. Thompson got up from his desk. The skylight was directly over his desk. If I were to go jumping through the window right then and there, not only would he be taken by surprise and likely scream for help before I could stop him, but he'd also have ample opportunity to fight back. I know, you're probably saying "He's sixty-five years old! He's not gonna fight back, and if he does, you're an able-bodied eleven-year-old girl! He should be easy to take down!" but let me tell you, the elderly still have some vigor left in them. I learned that the hard way. Also, I'm not an able-bodied eleven-year-old. I'm short and underweight.

Before coming up with this plan, I did consider the possibility of shooting him with one of my arrows through the skylight, but decided against it because I figured that the skylight wouldn't open wide enough for me to get an arrow to hit where I wanted it to go. I'd break the glass, but anyone with half a brain could figure out why that wouldn't work.

So, I was left with this plan: Wait for him to get up from his desk, slip through the open skylight (I'm fairly certain I can fit.), land on his desk, catch him off guard and shoot him in the eye. Probably not the best plan ever. I can name a hundred different things that could go wrong with that, but it's all I can come up with on the spot.

All of a sudden there was a knock at Mr. Thompson's door.

_Crap_. I thought. _I didn't take someone suddenly showing up into account. I might have to rethink my plan._

"Come in." Mr. Thompson said exasperatedly. A woman, most likely a secretary entered the room.

"Sorry for the intrusion, Thompson-san," The woman said politely. "but someone from the Osaka branch is on the li-"

"Tell them to call back later." He said cutting her off. "In fact, tell that to anyone who calls that isn't that conference call I have scheduled, my wife or my son."

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." He said.

"Is there anything else you want me to do?" She asked.

"No, that will be all." He said. After that, she nodded and left the room.

Mr. Thompson then leaned over his desk and pressed his hand to his forehead in exasperation. He looked over at a photo on his desk, probably one of his wife or his son, then turned and got up to look out the window behind him. Now is the perfect time to strike.

With my bow in one hand and an arrow in the other, I squeezed through the skylight and landed on his desk with a loud thud. Obviously hearing my landing, Mr. Thompson turned around to see me standing on his desk with an arrow ready to fly. By the time he started to move towards the door and get help, that arrow was lodged in his shoulder. He cried out and started to bolt for the door, so I had no choice but to shoot him in the leg.

The final blow was a shot to the eye. Once I was sure he was dead, I took pictures on my cell phone to show the Director, and left out the window. Once I was safely on the ground, I threw up and started crying.

* * *

I stood quietly by the door as he shuffled through the pictures on my phone.

"And you're sure he's dead?" Director Hoshina said.

"Yes, sir." I said quietly. "Positive."

He continued to stare at the phone, shuffling through the photos with an unreadable expression.

"Good work." He said without meaning it, handing me back my cell phone.

"Thank you." I said as I walked forward to take the phone back. Once the phone was out of his hands, he turned is office chair around so it was facing the giant glass wall behind his desk that faced the Tokyo Skyline. "Um, sir," I said nervously. "about my offer…"

"I'll consider it." He said harshly.

"Okay, thank you." I said quietly as I turned to leave.

* * *

"Marceline." I knew what this deep voice was and tried to ignore it. "Marceline." It said more intensely. "I know you're awake, Marceline."

_Crap_. I knew that this wasn't going to be good.

"Come on now, open your eyes." The deep voice said and suddenly my eyes were forced open, forcing me to stare into the smoky darkness.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" I shouted.

"I just want you to see something, Marceline." The deep voice said with a laugh.

"See something?" I questioned.

"Get up." The voice commanded.

"No."

"Get up!" The voice commanded again.

"NO!" I screamed. "NO! I DON'T WANT TO!"

"Get up and see what I want you to see!" The now enraged voice commanded. I was then forced to stand up and walk towards a slumped over silhouette on the other side of the darkness. When I reached it, I saw that it was the grotesque, bloody body of Mr. Thompson. I tried as hard as I could not to scream.

"You see this?" The voice asked. "You did this, Marceline. You are the reason this man is dead."

"NO!" I screamed. "STOP IT! STOP IT!"

"Why should I stop? You murderer!" At the word "murderer" I broke down screaming and crying. The voice must have realized I didn't like being called that and began chanting the word over and over again, no matter how much I screamed, cried, and begged for it to stop. After going through what felt like decades of torture, I woke up in my room with a tear-soaked face, and still a murderer.

* * *

**Okay, I understand if you hate this fic and are gonna stop reading now. I'm pretty sure I didn't handle this realistically enough. *sigh* Well, Happy New Year! ('Cause this was originally posted on the Hi no Nami blogspot on New Year's Day.) I hope twenty-fourteen is better than last year. (Probably won't be because most of my friends are seniors and are graduating in May.) T-T**

* * *

**This chapter was originally uploaded to the Hi no Nami Blogspot on 1/1/14.**


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